I was going somewhere without my cellphone (OMG) and I wondered what I could think about that would contribute to my day. And I thought of my default subjects: since your thoughts influence how you feel, you might as well have good thoughts in order to feel good. So I prepared a list of thoughts that I can easily refer to when I want to consciously decide of the direction of my thoughts:
– I love my body / I am grateful for my body. Or what reason could I find to love my body?
– What could I tell myself  / remember that would make me laugh?
– What’s great about my life?
– What could I write  about in my next gratitude post? What am I grateful for?
The facilitator this weekend told us that our brain is an answer finding machine. So it is important to ask empowering questions that will lead to positive responses if one wants to feel good…
What would it take to laugh more?

The magic of the moon continues:
I heard so many people talk about the moon the day after the eclipse. I am grateful for a beautiful event that touched so many people.

I looked up online where to watched the moon rise last night for the super moon. Then I looked at the rising time. Then I found a couple of friends to share the adventure with. I must say, I was really surprised that so many other people had chosen to do the same thing! 🙂
And then, it turned out that I didn’t read the time properly so we were late but the eclipse was going on at moon rise, not later in the night like I assumed so we were right on time for the total eclipse…
I am grateful for the magical evening and the people I got to share it with.

Recently, a friend of mine told me that she had been wondering what made us loose our ability to be ourselves. She said that she remember when she was a child not caring about what other people thought of how she dressed or what she did and then some day it changed… That reminded me of a lot of my childhood pictures. In my twenties, I wondered how my parents let me look that way on so many pictures…
Fashion sense is not my thing. Being happy is what I am after, so now I am grateful that my parents let me not care about how I was dressed and allowed me to be me.

Yesterday, in class, the facilitator talked about how skillful we can become at aweful-izing life. We can be so skillful at it that we are no longer conscious that we’re doing it. In the same line of thought, I believe that I have become very skillful at not being in awe of life / being alive. And I have learned that becoming aware of something is the first step to changing it. Being grateful for what and who is in my life is the beginning of my rehab program into enjoying life more and more and more… I am grateful for those who are witness to this process.

I dreamed that Hugh Grant was my boss. And then I was surviving a flood, climbing a mountain, being late for a train and so on but the first thing I remembered when I woke up was having dreamed of Hugh Grant. I am grateful for entertaining dreams!

I read something in French that said some like:
Making someone laugh is great intimacy.
When someone makes me laugh, I consider it a gift.
I am grateful for the person who wrote this. It made me chuckle.

Last night, before falling asleep, I realized how safe I feel in my bed. I never thought of that before. And looking at it further, I realized that I have always felt safe in my bed (especially from the monsters under the bed). I am grateful for this feeling of being safe.

I remember an episode of Ally McBeal where Ally demonstrates for one of her colleagues how to appreciate her morning cappuccino or latte. I think of it often as I take the fist sip of my morning beverage and enjoy the physical sensations from this first sip.
I heard a teacher once say “may all sentient beings experience this”
I think of that too when I enjoy my first sip.
In gratitude articles, a common thread is about being more aware of the things that bring pleasurable sensations through the senses…
I am grateful for this wonderful first sip, for the creaminess, the warmth, the deliciousness. Thank you body for this wonderful experience!

Next weekend, I am going to a class that is a repeat of one of the first class that I took four years ago in my quest of making my life better and better and better…
I was thinking about the people I will see there and how to summarize where I am at now. It made me realize that I am living the best time of my life so far. And I plan on still making it better and better and better.
How does it get any better than that?